Nagpur: Even after appointing two separate firms and revising door-to-door garbage collection charges by almost Rs2 lakh per day, the city has not even achieved 10% of segregation of dry and wet waste.
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had ousted Kanak Resources and Management Limited and appointed BVG India and AG Environ to improve garbage collection in the city. It used to pay Rs1,436 per metric tonne for lifting door-to-door garbage. Rs1,800 per metric tonne is being paid to BVG India and Rs1,950 to AG Environ. Among the several conditions, one is to lift only segregated garbage.
More than 13 months after the two agencies were given the contract, NMC’s solid waste management department’s four-month data states that both BVG India and AG Environ are not only collecting mixed garbage but also dumping almost 1000MT at the Bhandewadi dumping yard. This defeats the purpose of appointing two agencies to improve segregated garbage collection at source.
As per the data, in August, both the firms had collected and transported 28495.56MT garbage to the dumping yard. They dumped 26838.19MT of mixed garbage. Similarly, in November, they transported and dumped 31,837.30 MT of waste of which only 2934.38MT was segregated, which comes to around 9.22% of the total waste collected from the city, the data revealed.
Environmentalist and director of Centre For Sustainable Development Leena Buddhe said, “We have to understand why both the contractors are not lifting segregated waste at source itself. This is one of their key conditions mentioned in the contract. Possibly the two firms are doing so because they are getting paid as per garbage weightage.”
In Bengaluru, the civic body gives incentives to the firm for lifting segregated garbage at source itself. “I had suggested a similar formula to the NMC when they were finalizing both the new agencies,” she said and added, “but NMC had ignored my proposal. So, both the firms earn more money by lifting and transporting mixed garbage from source to the dumping yard.”
She urged the NMC to implement the three ‘R’s — reduce, reuse and recycle. “No reduce is happening. The NMC has also failed to provide designated dry and wet waste spaces at the dumping yard so that rag pickers will automatically lift waste that can be reused,” she said.
Deputy municipal commissioner (SWM) Dr Pradip Dasarwar admitted that the quantum of segregated garbage being transported to the dumping yard is very less and said special squads have been formed at every zone. “Led by sanitary inspectors, the squads will ensure only segregated garbage is being transported from source to the end destination,” he said.
Poor treatment
The NMC has a facility to treat at least 200MT of wet waste at the Hanjer Plant on the Bhandewadi dumping yard premises to generate compost but it is not even running at half its capacity, confirmed an official from the project department. The official said the firm is finding it difficult to sell the compost and so, it is treating it as per the order.
TRASH MATTERS
Month—Mixed garbage —Garbage
Aug—26,838—28,495.56
Sept—27,596.31—28,086.61
Oct—28,039.21—30,266.46
Nov—28,903—31,837.38
(Garbage in metric tonne dumped at Bhandewadi dumping yard)